11 June 2013
On Friday I visited Old Buckenham High School, to see firsthand how The Amgen-Bruce Wallace Biotechnology lab programme, being delivered in the region by the Teacher Scientist Network (TSN) and the Science Learning Centre East of England, is giving school pupils hands-on experience of using cutting-edge science techniques that are common place in labs around the world.
Old Buckenham High School is one of 10 schools across Norfolk that supported one of their science teachers and a science technician to attend the training programme last summer at the John Innes Centre, with each school loaning the kit from the TSN Kit Club for a two to three week period.
The UK ‘s “life sciences” sector (The appliance of science to solve the biggest challenges in our day today lives) is I believe ideally placed to help the country trade its way out of the economic crisis by offering solutions to the problems associated with the rapidly growing global population. The three pillars of the Life Science Sector: Agriculture, Medicine and Energy are areas in which our area and the Norwich Research Park excel. However, in order for this to continue to be the case we will need trained technicians and innovative scientists in the future and this is where our local schools our key.
Schemes such as this provide our local children with the opportunity to get hands-on experience using top of the range scientific equipment. Hopefully this will encourage more students to take up the sciences, and inspire the scientists and lab technicians of the future, and help build Norfolk’s reputation as a “Science County”.
Old Buckenham High School is one of 10 schools across Norfolk that supported one of their science teachers and a science technician to attend the training programme last summer at the John Innes Centre, with each school loaning the kit from the TSN Kit Club for a two to three week period.
The UK ‘s “life sciences” sector (The appliance of science to solve the biggest challenges in our day today lives) is I believe ideally placed to help the country trade its way out of the economic crisis by offering solutions to the problems associated with the rapidly growing global population. The three pillars of the Life Science Sector: Agriculture, Medicine and Energy are areas in which our area and the Norwich Research Park excel. However, in order for this to continue to be the case we will need trained technicians and innovative scientists in the future and this is where our local schools our key.
Schemes such as this provide our local children with the opportunity to get hands-on experience using top of the range scientific equipment. Hopefully this will encourage more students to take up the sciences, and inspire the scientists and lab technicians of the future, and help build Norfolk’s reputation as a “Science County”.
